Showing results by author "D.J. Butler" in All Categories

Sarah Calhoun is the 15-year-old daughter of the Elector Andrew Calhoun, one of Appalachee's military heroes and one of the electors who gets to decide who will next ascend as the Emperor of the New World. None of that matters to Sarah. She has a natural talent for hexing and one bad eye, and all she wants is to be left alone - especially by outsiders.

Indrajit Twang is the 427th epic poet of his people, the only person alive to carry their entire epic history and mythology in his head. His people are dwindling in number, and if he can't find a successor in the great city of Kish, their story will disappear with them. Fix grew up a foundling on the ancient streets of Kish and is making his living as a mercenary. The woman he loves married someone else, and Fix has turned to buying and selling risk on the black market - but is he trying to impress her, or prove something to himself?

Sarah Calhoun paid a hard price for her entry onto the stage of the Empire's politics, but she survived. Now she rides north into the Ohio and her father's kingdom, Cahokia. To win the Serpent Throne, she'll have to defeat seven other candidates, win over the kingdom's regent, and learn the will of a hidden goddess - while mastering her people's inscrutable ways and watching her own back. In New Orleans, a new and unorthodox priest arises to plague the chevalier and embody the curse of the murdered Bishop Ukwu.

Thirteen incredible authors. Thirteen stories about the Depik - what they were and where their society goes from here!

Award-winning author and editor Candace Nola is back with another Dark Dozen Anthology. This time around, Full Throttle brings you twelve pedal to the metal stories of extreme, hardcore horror sure to knock your socks off! The turbo-charged line-up includes some of the hardest hitters in the industry, both well-known and rising stars of indie horror.

Prepare for a pulse-pounding adventure that transcends time itself in the riveting Time Trials. Meet Marty Cohen, a brilliant linguist turned woodworking shop owner who thought he had left behind the politics and rivalries of academia for good. But when his woodworking business takes a hit, an offer he can't refuse pulls him back into the world of Egyptology. Marty is summoned to an off-the-grid archaeological dig, where ancient texts may hold the key to Earth's past and future. With the promise of riches, Marty embarks on a journey that defies belief.

Join the last vestiges of Humanity and their alien allies (the reptilian Thrynn, the insectoid Velox, and the plant-based Elowan) as they attempt to carve out their own territory in a sector of space filled with wondrous opportunity and deadly threats. Brave explorers seek out new worlds to colonize while merchants cruise from starport to starport, their holds laden with exotic goods. Not all in this futuristic setting have noble intent. For every prospector and trader attempting to make a difference, a dozen pirates, smugglers, and mobsters engage in all manner of criminal enterprise.

Cheerful in the face of dark opposition. Innovative to improve a backward world. Industrial as a cure for oppressive conditions. Unyielding beneath all who seek to bind and control them. Faithful until they conquer the fear of death and rise to great acts of heroism and service. Mormons and steampunks are two faces of the same coin. Twelve authors spin tales of true believers facing impossible odds, risking this life in the hope of gaining something better after.

Marty Cohen and his team embarked on a cross-continental journey across North Africa with the goal of returning to their starting point. However, after passing through a mysterious portal, they find themselves in a place and time that is completely unexpected. They end up on an isolated island nation where strangers are viewed as ominous figures sent by a higher power. The people of this nation hold a prophecy that involves a team of strangers as harbingers of either death or salvation.

Take a meander from places labeled normal to a world that clatters, slinks, and drips. Looks aren't everything and nothing is as it seems. Along the Elizabeth River in Norfolk stands an unassuming diner where love and misery are on the menu. Come for breakfast, stay for the pie. You might never want to leave. The Dark Reflections series is a shared world based on the art by Jeff Lee Johnson in which each author has contributed a single character to the telling of the tale behind the images.

Science fiction and fantasy comprise some of the great works of the human imagination—and some of the most abhorrent. This is your Politically Incorrect Guide® to a literary tradition that is a key to understanding the modern world.

They want to rescue damsels in distress. They have to pay the bills. The continuing adventures of Indrajit and Fix. WELCOME TO KISH Indrajit and Fix are the founding partners of the Protagonists, a jobber company in Kish. Since the seven great families of Kish farm out all tasks they and the...

From Japanese legends to mafia mermen, from carnival freaks to flying aces, from bayou legends to kraken-like behemoths, these tales explore the darker side of merfolk: desire, envy, love unfulfilled, grace ungranted, and loneliness turned to rage....

Marty Cohen ist ein kompetenter Linguist und Experte für antike Militärstrategie. Allerdings hat er sich von akademischer Ägyptologie abgewandt und eine Tischlerwerkstatt eröffnet. Abseits frustrierender Politik und kleinlicher Rivalitäten kümmert er sich um seine Mitarbeiter, vergnügt sich gelegentlich mit einem Kriegsspiel und führt ein beschauliches Leben. Allerdings rauben ihm mysteriöse Visionen den Schlaf. Dann wird er zurück nach Ägypten gerufen.

From abandoned mines and forgotten trails to Native American ruins and an apple orchard, the Superstition Mountains are full of history and intrigue. Forming the eastern border of Arizona's Valley of the Sun, the Superstitions have not only been an incredible source of beauty and outdoor adventure but also a place riddled with superstition and mystery. To this day, treasure hunters scour the mountains for gold. They research old landmarks and maps, along with clues from generations past.

The band is eating at a cheap diner with the local club manager, making arrangements for the evening's gig, when they are attacked by a swarm of flying snakes. Adrian, the organ player and wizard, is bitten. Before he puts himself into a magical coma, face turning purple, he warns his band mates that they only have three hours to save him. Can the band find a cure before Adrian's time is up? Why is the town's preacher obsessed with the ancient Israelite serpent icon, the Nehushtan? And can the band get out of town before the snake god Apep arrives?

Bucky McCrae won't take nonsense from you. Not if you're poor Evil Patten (named, with bad spelling, after Evel Knievel), and you just want to be Bucky's boyfriend and get through the summer without an accident on your highway construction job. Not if you're Bucky's dad - friendly, charming, and a little bit short on ambition, running your law practice out of the back of bowling alley in the rural northwest. Not even if you're a stone cold killer, and you have Bucky in your sights.

Bass player Mike Archuleta is down on his luck in a major way. The shattered survivor of a misspent youth, he is haunted by the ghost of his dead brother, and is now driven to planning his suicide. Halfway through the show that's supposed to be his last, a hellhound bursts into the club and attacks the band. The band members pull out karate moves, guns, and even a sword...and then things start to get strange.

Spend an afternoon antiquing, and it’s not hard to figure out why picking has become one of America’s fondest pastimes. It’s treasure hunting while connecting with history. But what if those treasures hunt us back? From old books, vinyl records, antique mirrors, vintage figurines, and a Bob’s big boy piggy bank, curses have no limits.

Buza System is Dyan’s world. She has been a Crecheling, one of the System’s children, trained in a broad range of skills and knowledge and prepared to take her place as an Urbane, a full-fledged adult member of the desert community with a Calling given to her by the System and its Cogitant Council. Between receiving her Calling and admission into the System, though, stand the Hanging and the Selection. The System has a lesson it wants to teach Dyan about death. Against that brutal experience, and entwined within it, destiny has a different lesson for her, about the family she has never known…and about love.